Are These Early Bilstein Struts?

[Ferrino]

I believe there are variations of the Bilstein strut housings whereby the "wiper seal" (which sits at the top of the housing and prevents ingress of dirt/debris) is different. My understanding is that on the "early" housing, this wiper seal is not replaceable. Can anyone please tell me if this is the case for those pictured below? I am about to drop in some rebuilt and revalved strut inserts and am not clear if I can renew the wiper seal on mine. Thanks!

[Charles Freeborn]

The seals and bushings are replaceable, but require some special tooling and a press to install. Bilstein, or other very experienced repair facilities can do it for you. Not recommended for DIY project.
-C

[Ferrino]

Thanks Charles. I have seen others on the forum documenting the replacement of the wiper seals with basic tools, but was not sure if the same applied to mine. Do you know of any images comparing the different styles of seal?

[chris_seven]

You do have the early type and in many ways is easier to deal with than the later configuration shown below.



Both types of strut use the same seal - which is NLA from Bilstein.



The early strut has the seal installed in the top of the leg and is held in place by the small plated cap that taps onto the OD of the housing. This cap is also NLA but we have sourced them from another supplier.



You simply pull out the seal and replace.

The later cap allows the seal to be fitted externally. The seal sits into an external recess in the cap and is held in place by the friction of the rubber with the seal housing.

The new seals that Bilstein supply are metal cased and don't grip into the later housing. Bilstein have suggested that they can be 'glued' in place - a solution I don't like.

The new seal does, however, fit the earlier arrangement and as it is held in place by the plated cap it works just fine. Just install the seal and tap the cap back in place.

The DU bushes installed at the top and bottom of the housings (2 per housing) are more difficult to remove - we are just making a small batch of tools to make this job more straightforward-

If you buy a replacement set of Bushings from Bilstein they will be about 50% of the length of the originals and quite expensive.

GBB supply new bushes of the original length for about $4.00 each.

Re-fitting is easy as they are a simple split bush that just taps into place using as suitable mandrel.





The

[Ferrino]

Chris, thanks very much for your reply. Top cap and seals now out and awaiting replacement seals. Spent a long time fishing out the grease/oil/disintegrated-bump-stop emulsion that was left in the strut housing... What's your protocol for regreasing - do you just grease the bushes a little?

[m1franck]

I'm in this same situation. Who is GBB and how/where do I purchase the proper replacement seals? I have the older style Bilstein strut housings. Thanks

[Ferrino]

m1franck, FYI I sourced my replacement seals from Elephant Racing.

[chris_seven]

GBB is Glacier Garlock Bearings and the bush sleeves used in the legs are their DU material.

Bilstein supply a seal that fits.

When new Bilstein used to use a Red coloured assembly grease to install the insert but DU works perfectly well dry so I would just tend to use a very light smear of Silicone grease.